Alan Caruba's blog is a daily look at events, personalities, and issues from an independent point of view. Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2015. With attribution, posts may be shared. A permission request is welcome. Email acaruba@aol.com.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Bad Nominations, Worse Future

By Alan
Caruba

When one
considers the damage to the nation’s economic system by the various ideologues
appointed to Barack Obama’s cabinet during his first term, the nominations of former
Sen. Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense, and John Brennan, the president’s
national security advisor, to head the Central Intelligence Agency, are a
disaster waiting to happen as is the proposed nomination of Sen. John Kerry to
replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

On March
13, 2012, I wrote a commentary, “Obama’s National Security Advisor ‘Went Native’ Years Ago” in which I cited a YouTube video in which Brennan praised
Islam and Arab culture. At one point he addressed them in fluent Arabic. In
1996 he was the CIA station chief in Riyadh when a truck bomb killed U.S.
servicemen. He has a long record of bad judgment and bad decisions regarding
U.S. policy in the Middle East and one wonders if he had a hand in the Banghazi
scandal cover-up that was initially passed off at a random attack triggered by
a video no one had seen.

His rise
to the top ranks of the CIA ensures his selection will influence its approach
to the rise of Islamism throughout the Middle East, including Obama’s tilt
toward the Muslim Brotherhood and its takeover of Egypt, and the current Syrian
civil war in which al Qaeda is playing an active role beside the Syrian rebels
seeking to remove its dictator. That said, Brennan gets credit for his reported role in the assassination of Osama
bin Laden and further efforts to degrade al Qaeda. It is a curious
juxtaposition given his admiration for Islam and Arabs in general.

The
appointment of Chuck Hagel to head the Department of Defense would be an
affirmation of a man who has opposed sanctions on Iran, opposed the surge
during the Iraq War, and who is on record opposing a military strike on Iran’s
nuclear facilities by either the U.S. or Israel. He is well known for his
antipathy for what he called the “Jewish lobby” in Washington, D.C. At a time
when many factions threaten Israel, including the Iranian proxies, Hamas and
Hezbollah, his appointment is further confirmation of the Obama
administration’s opposition to Israel’s right of self-defense, issues regarding
its borders, and even the building of new housing to accommodate its growing
population.

The U.S.
military is being hollowed out in terms of its ability to both defend the
homeland and to assert influence over global events that pose a threat to the
U.S. Hagel is likely to continue this process. Sequestration alone will hasten
that process.

A
long-time opponent of the U.S. military is Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) who began his
career in politics with testimony before Congress accusing it of war crimes in
Vietnam. During his run for the presidency against George W. Bush, his actual
record in combat was disclosed by a group called the Swiftboat Veterans and
former POWs. The Department of State continues to “tilt” toward Islamists and
recently ended the post-9/11 policy
of restrictions on visas for Saudi Arabians despite the fact that Saudis were
the majority of those who participated in the attack.

There has
been a 60% increase in businessmen and students allowed to enter the U.S. since
2010.

Sen. Kerry
is a proponent of President Obama’s belief that the U.S. must talk to its
enemies in order to affect a change in their behavior. In practice this has
rarely worked. The U.S. has been trying to talk with Iran since it took our
diplomats hostage in1979 to no effect other than to give them the time to
develop their nuclear program that threatens the entire Middle East and the
West.

No
replacement has been named for the administrator of the Environmental
Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, but whoever it is will likely be just as bad.
The EPA has released thousands of new regulations whose effect will be to slow
or strangle any economic recovery. The EPA has launched an effort to regulate
“fracking”, a technology that has opened up vast new reserves of natural gas,
and the purpose will be to slow that progress.

What we
have is a pattern of appointments, all of which, past and present, have wreaked
havoc on the economy and on issues affecting defense and foreign policy.

Under the
direction of the current Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, the coal industry has
been harmed to include the closing of several coal-fired utilities that have
provided electricity. The department has gained well-earned criticism for the
billions it “invested” in failed solar energy and other “green” companies that
swiftly went into bankruptcy and were often led by major Obama donors. The
Department even advocates using algae, pond scum, as a green source of energy.

Obama’s
Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, has done little—in concert
with Attorney General Eric Holder—to protect our southwestern border against
the flow of illegal aliens and potential terrorists. Several terrorist attacks
in recent years were thwarted by airplane passengers, not the DHS. In the wake
of the “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal, Holder was held in contempt of
Congress, the first AG to be censored. He has announced his intention to resign
after the president’s second inauguration. Obama’s Secretary of the Treasury,
Timothy Geithner, has also announced plans to retire.

There is
no way to know how history will judge the record of Obama’s first appointments
and first term, but if the proposed appointments clear Congress, it bodes ill
for a nation that, since Obama’s election in 2008, has been consistently
reduced from being the world’s greatest economy and looked to for its role
since the end of WWII as the world’s “policeman”, exerting its power to thwart
despots and others that would threaten world peace.

Many
Americans have become so wary of the Obama agenda that they have been
purchasing guns and ammunition in anticipation of a manufactured crisis that
would end the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. Others fear a further decline
in the value of the U.S. dollar and await a major battle over raising the
nation’s debt ceiling without steps to reduce the vast spending that has
occurred in the past four years.

It is said
that one is “known by his friends”, but the friends of Barack Obama have not
been friends to America.

3 comments:

John Brennan looks like a dodgy thug - why would anyone think he's up to being head of the CIA?? And why should we be surprised by the Chuck Hagel nomination? Even former NY mayor ED Koch has come out today and said that he knew Obama would betray Israel....but it's earlier than he thought he would. Mr Koch endorsed Obama during the last election campaign by misleading the Jewish voters into believing Obama cared about Israel. So, he knew he was lying to his own people and he still supported and endorsed Obama! That's what the Jewish Democrat supporters are all about.... Would vote their own people down the river, but just don't let a Republican near the WH! Yet, it's the Republicans who have proven over and over to be the true supporters of Israel. I just don't get this stupidity from a supposedly intelligent race!

Our only hope now is that the country can survive the next four years intact. Hopefully, as the effects of this tyranny begin to be felt, the American public will wise up and start cleaning house in 2014, and finish throwing the entire lot of these traitors out of office in 2016 ...

About Me

I am and have been for a long time a writer by profession. I have several books to my credit and my daily column, "Warning Signs", is disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites, as well as blogs. In addition, I am a longtime book reviewer and have a blog offering a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction.